The regulation of epithelial tissue structure in Drosophila

基因组测序已经确定了制造动物所需的所有蛋白质。然而，我们才刚刚开始了解这些蛋白质是如何共同起作用的。身体中最常见的组织结构是构成皮肤和器官的细胞层。蛋白质是如何组织这些薄片形成皮肤、肺、心脏或胃的？我的实验室正在用果蝇作为一个简单的模型系统来解决这个基本问题。我们可以利用强大的基因技术来破坏苍蝇的蛋白质功能，并识别对组织发育重要的蛋白质。我们将其与先进的成像技术相结合，以监测组织的形成，并评估破坏蛋白质功能的影响。通过这种方式，我们发现了共同作用引起组织结构特定变化的蛋白质。通过将一组蛋白质与特定的组织变化联系起来，组织变化的分子基础将被定义，因此基因组与整个动物之间的联系将变得清晰。这对于理解组织如何正常形成，以及它们在癌症等疾病中如何分解都很重要。它也与组织和器官的工程有关。

Genome sequencing has identified all of the proteins required for making an animal. However, we are just beginning to understand how these proteins function together to do so. The most common tissue architecture in the body are the sheets of cells that form our skin and organs. How do proteins organize these sheets to form the skin, lungs, heart or stomach? My lab is addressing this fundamental question using the fruit fly as a simple model system. We can use the powerful genetic techniques available in the fly to disrupt protein function and to identify proteins important for tissue development. We couple this with advanced imaging techniques to monitor the tissues as they form and to assess the effects of disrupting protein functions. In this way, we are discovering the proteins that work together to elicit specific changes in tissue structure. By linking sets of proteins to specific tissue changes, the molecular bases of tissue changes will be defined, and thus the links between the genome and the whole animal will become clear. This is important for understanding how tissues form normally, and for understanding how they break down in diseases like cancer. It is also relevant to the engineering of tissues and organs.